Why cant Blizzard legally shut down gold sellers?

Blizzard successfully had both Glider and Piroxbots shut down legally. Why cant they do the same for gold sellers?

This is the court's ruling on GliderIn July 2008, the court entered summary judgment holding MDY Industries liable for tortious interference and copyright infringement, based, in part, upon the legal premise that users of the World of Warcraft client software are licensees rather than owners of their copy of software.

Different countries, different legal stand points.
IIRC Glider was operated by a German company and they have quite strict copyright laws. Other countries less so, and less likely to comply with an American business.

Well first, it's impossible because it's not just one company but hundreds and if you close one down another will spring up. Also, it's being done in other countries which have different laws. Finally, I'd say a big chunk of it is, those bots pay sub fees or use hacked accounts which are paying sub fees. Why would you purposely take away money from yourself? That's just bad business.

What laws are they breaking? It is my understanding that Glider was shut down as it used and modified WOW's code and thus was a breach of copyright whereas gold sellers that use bots are making use of automation of in game systems.

Blizzard was able to get Glider shut down because they where able to prove that Glider was using some of Blizzard coding thus breaking copy right laws. The gold sellers on the other hand are just breaking the Terms of Service without breaking any real laws.

The key word is legally. I am assuming there is not a statute about selling virtual currency, or for violating the Terms of use agreement. Blizzard has no authority over a third party site doing something for which no legal statute exists. All they can do is ban the account.

Why would they shut down the greatest cash cow they have ever been able to produce? It would be the best business strategy ever to sell gold in one's own game, without having to pay taxes off those earnings.

Blizzard successfully had both Glider and Piroxbots shut down legally. Why cant they do the same for gold sellers?

This is the court's ruling on GliderIn July 2008, the court entered summary judgment holding MDY Industries liable for tortious interference and copyright infringement, based, in part, upon the legal premise that users of the World of Warcraft client software are licensees rather than owners of their copy of software.

How is gold selling not tortious interference?

Because glider was a botting program, and gold selling happens inside the game without botting.

Blizzard successfully had both Glider and Piroxbots shut down legally. Why cant they do the same for gold sellers?

This is the court's ruling on GliderIn July 2008, the court entered summary judgment holding MDY Industries liable for tortious interference and copyright infringement, based, in part, upon the legal premise that users of the World of Warcraft client software are licensees rather than owners of their copy of software.

How is gold selling not tortious interference?

There is a huge difference between bots that circumvent security and automate gameplay elements and people that farm the shit out of mobs.

While it can be said that gold sellers CAN be bots, the reality is that it is typically impossible to tell unless they are caught using a popular program. Taking that into account, it isn't really feasible to just start banning accounts on the basis that they farm a lot of stuff and save their money. There has to be more than that going on.

Originally Posted by melodramocracy

Gold and the 'need' for it in-game is easily one of the most overblown mindsets in this community.

Even ones in US, unless there is an actual law that is passed (not sure if law or bill... ) that bans any form of '3rd party monetization of in-game goods' it has to be a case-by-case incident for the different companies (bot or gold-selling) which can take very long and cost a looooot of money.(but of couse, blizzard has money growing trees)

It is because as the laws as mentioned above. But in fact the real reason it is because they are simply too many of them. To legally take them down it will cost Blizz millions and that is simply next to impossible... well go to china and fight a 20 man bot company trough their law system... you get the picture now....

What laws are they breaking? It is my understanding that Glider was shut down as it used and modified WOW's code and thus was a breach of copyright whereas gold sellers that use bots are making use of automation of in game systems.

Yea but Pirox Bots didnt modify anything in game. It was just all external scripts. They got that shut down too. Also I think PiroxBots is from Germany as well.

---------- Post added 2013-04-29 at 02:39 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Mikey P

Not all of it is theory. There is no law or statute making monetization of virtual items illegal, hence Blizzard has zero grounds for a civil or criminal law suit.

Now I am gonna go back to pretending I am an Orc Monk, and not a lawyer.

Using that argument if I sell my account for real life money and they reclaim it thus keeping my account and getting the money from the buyer did I break any laws?

I sense too much patriotism here. Anyhow, no matter how big US is then can't do shit. I know a friend from Romania who used a copyrighted webdesign page...the patent company tried to take him down legally and the romanians just shove up the complaint. It never happened. As I said, how FAR do you think you can solve issues in China for example? I mean, there are illegal Apple stores next to the damn official ones and they still can't take them down and that is big business...

Yea but Pirox Bots didnt modify anything in game. It was just all external scripts. They got that shut down too. Also I think PiroxBots is from Germany as well.

---------- Post added 2013-04-29 at 02:39 PM ----------

Using that argument if I sell my account for real life money and they reclaim it thus keeping my account and getting the money from the buyer did I break any laws?

You might not be breaking any real laws but you are breaking the rule that Blizzard set for the use of their software. So they might not be able to take you to court but they can cancel "your" account.